Aptos Airdrop season is coming. This is how you can earn money

In crypto, new network launches are usually followed by airdrop seasons. These “seasons” are periods where all the new projects that have built applications on the network’s testnet get ready to launch them on the mainnet. To stimulate activity and attract new users to their product, they issue an allocation of their initial token to early adopters.

For new projects, airdrops are a great way to attract attention and make a fair initial distribution of their native governance tokens. For users, they are a great way to earn risk-free money by trying out new applications. The latest example of this is the launch of one of the most anticipated Layer 1 networks, Aptos, and the upcoming airdrop season.

Looking for Aptos Airdrops

Before we dig into the best ways to take advantage of Apto’s airdrop season, here’s a quick primer on the network.

Aptos is a Proof-of-Stake-based Layer 1 blockchain that combines parallel transaction processing with a new smart contract language called Move to achieve very high transaction throughput. It is built by Aptos Labs, a blockchain startup led by two former Meta employees, Mo Shaikh and Avery Ching. It is considered the technological successor to Meta’s abandoned blockchain project Diem, which is the main reason why it has received a lot of attention early on.

Aptos launched on the mainnet on October 19 with an airdrop of 150 APT tokens (worth about $1,237 at the time) to users who participated in the incentivized testnet. Less than a month ago, hundreds of new projects have either launched or announced their release on Aptos, with many hints of potential airdrops. And while the majority of these airdrops have yet to be officially confirmed, many airdrop hunters have already started using applications in hopes of qualifying.

The best way to take advantage of this gold rush is to use as many Aptos applications as possible since many of them can retroactively reward their users with airdrops. You can start using the network and prepare for the airdrop season with a small amount of capital to reduce your risk exposure; Allocating a lower sum to airdrop hunting strategies is unlikely to exclude you from potential opportunities. Aptos News provides a performance page with a comprehensive list of live and upcoming applications on Aptos. You can filter for the projects that are already live on the mainnet and then go through them to see if they have plans to launch tokens.

To help you kickstart your Aptos journey and potentially walk away with a nice profit, we’ve put together a short step-by-step guide that can help you secure tokens from some projects rumored for upcoming airdrops .

1. Get an Aptos wallet

The first step in this process is to download a crypto wallet that supports Aptos. Currently, the two most popular wallets are Martian and Pontem. Download and install both, as some Aptos applications only support one and not the other. Also, both wallets are rumored to be launching their own tokens, but to qualify you have to follow different steps.

For Martian, after you download the Chrome extension and create your wallet, visit this website, switch networks from inside your wallet to Deevnet, get some devnet APT tokens, and use free Martian NFT. Holding this NFT will increase your chances of receiving a potential airdrop from the project soon.

To qualify for the Pontem Airdrop, which has been officially confirmed, you must first download the Pontem Chrome extension, create your wallet, and connect some tokens to Aptos.

2. Bridge the USDC using the Aptos Bridge

We recommend bridging a stablecoin like USDC using LayerZero’s Aptos Bridge. There’s a good chance you’ll kill two birds with one stone by doing this, as LayerZero is also rumored to be launching its own token.

To move USDC to Aptos, go to Aptos Bridge, connect your MetaMask wallet on Ethereum and your Pontem wallet on Aptos, select the amount of USDC you want to move from Ethereum to Aptos and click “transfer”. In a few minutes you will have USDC in your Pontem wallet at Aptos. This should help you qualify for the LayerZero airdrop.

3. Trade on Liquidswap

To qualify for the Pontem Airdrop, you must use the project’s decentralized exchange on Aptos, Liquidswap. However, before you can do this, you will need to acquire some APT tokens, as you will need them to pay the gas fees to trade on Aptos. Currently, the only way to do this is using centralized exchanges like Binance, Coinbase or FTX and then withdraw APT to your Pontem wallet on Aptos.

After you get some APT you can go to Liquidswap and do a simple swap to hopefully qualify for the Pontem airdrop. For example, if you want more exposure to APT, you can exchange the USDC you linked from Ethereum to APT, which should be enough to qualify you for the airdrop. However, to further increase your chances, it may also be a good idea to provide liquidity. Since you should already have USDC and APT on Aptos if you followed the previous steps, you can provide liquidity in the APT/USDC pool on the exchange. To do this, click on the “Pools” option at the top right of Liquidswap’s home page, select APT and USDC as your desired tokens, then click “Provide Liquidity.” You can stop providing liquidity at any time, but it would be wise to continue doing so until the airdrop is distributed.

4. Buy Aptos Monkeys or Aptomingos NFTs

Enchanter Finance is another decentralized exchange on Aptos that has confirmed an airdrop. To qualify for this, you must purchase NFTs from either the Aptos Monkeys or Aptomingos collections and follow the steps outlined in the team’s official airdrop guide. This airdrop campaign is set to start in the next few days, so make sure you follow the project’s social media accounts for updates. It’s also a good idea to do a simple swap or provide liquidity on the exchange in case they decide to retroactively reward their users in the future.

5. Trade on the Cetus protocol

To cover all bases, consider exchanging and providing liquidity on the Cetus Protocol decentralized exchange, as there is another project rumored to launch a token soon. The process is practically the same as exchanging or adding liquidity on Liquidswap and Enchanter Finance.

6. Start floating staking on Tortuga

Another project you should consider using is Apto’s floating staking protocol Tortuga. Although it has yet to officially confirm an airdrop, Tortuga has announced plans to launch its own token, which it will distribute to users. To qualify for a potential Tortuga airdrop, you can stake the APT of the return-bearing tAPT token on Tortuga’s Liquid Stake application and then provide liquidity for APT/tAPT trading pair on the AUX decentralized exchange at Aptos.

Final thoughts

As many of the potential airdrop opportunities are unconfirmed, there is a good chance that some of them will not materialize. Furthermore, it is worth considering that the Aptos ecosystem is still in its early stages, and the applications built on it may be prone to bugs or hacks. This applies in particular to decentralized exchanges, which may experience liquidity problems or suffer from interruptions on the platform.

That said, the pursuit of Aptos airdrops with only small amounts should outweigh the inherent risk of using the nascent Layer 1 network and its smart contract-based protocols. With Aptos airdrop season approaching, there’s every reason to follow our guide and get stuck in.

Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author of this piece owned ETH and several other cryptocurrencies.